I don’t remember the first time I saw The World’s End, but I’m pretty sure that like most people, it was my least favourite of the Cornetto Trilogy. Maybe because I couldn’t find myself liking Simon Pegg’s character for once, but I also couldn’t understand why someone might stay so focused on one night, especially when the night in question is so close to high school. My experience with high school wasn’t a bad one in retrospect, but I was happy to leave once I did.
Enter Gary King (Pegg) and his crew of outcasts. On June 20th, 1990, Gary and his four friends Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), Peter Page (Eddie Marsen) and Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman) decided to do the ultimate pub crawl across Newton Haven: 12 pubs, 12 pints. On the night in question, they only made it to the 9th and then they watched the sunrise. Years later, when Gary King told the story of that night, he would say that he thought that life hadn’t felt that good since. “And you know what? It never did.” Decades after an attempt at the Golden Mile, Gary gets the idea to finally finish his marathon with his friends, even if it meant going to the end of the world for a pint at The World’s End.
It goes without saying since all three films of the trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz being the other two) utilize a lot of common tropes found in American films, the same would happen with The World’s End – and this time, with a focus more on things found in science-fiction films. It also plays a lot on “one last ride”, or even as they mention at one point, “getting the boys back together”. To those who have seen the previous two films, you’ll notice that there are many repeat performers. Wright would go on to mention that any actor who appeared in the first two, would appear in this one. So there’s an extra layer of understanding in all these deep-rooted relationships, as they’ve worked alongside each other.
Using Edgar Wright’s trademark editing style, we see Gary quickly get all of his friends back together. They hop in The Beast, which is the same car that Peter had sold to him back in 1989. He’ll play a tape that Steven made for him a lifetime ago. These are some of the many ways that Gary has yet to move on from that moment in his life. As they arrive in Newton Haven, it’s clear that Gary isn’t the only one who has been stuck in time. For King and his friends, it’s continuously about that night that they’re all doomed to repeat.
Gary King is a truly selfish character. We see it again and again in the film, lying about his mother’s death, forcing Andy to drink after he stopped years prior, and yet there’s something about Pegg’s charming charisma that radiates which leads us, and the rest of his men, to follow him after every pint, and to the next pub. Even if we know they should all boo-boo and go home to their lives, they’d follow him to the end. There’s also the way his friends eventually regress, mimicking the people they once were, using the phrases they used to (“Don’t pull a Gary, Gary”) but for King, it’s not regression – it’s who he’s always been, and continues to be. We cheer for him with every drink even as we’re afraid for him and his musketeers. Until we get to the last pub.
At the beginning of the film when Gary tells his story, he’s in a group session — on first viewings, we might be meant to believe that he’s in an AA meeting or a similar support group. We’re unaware of the severity of it, during the emotional fight with Andy in the final pub, we see the bandages on his wrists (the true reason why he wouldn’t show his scar on his elbow), and we see that Gary had attempted suicide. He pleads and tries to explain that this night was the best feeling he had, where he was able to take on the world, filled with potential and optimism. But for him, he feels as if he has nothing to live for anymore. He grabs a pint glass and it’s the only time in the film that we feel as if we’ve let him down as we had watched him spiral for our enjoyment.
Gary King was lost. While in high school, he may not have been classified as one of the popular kids, he had his friends and that was enough for him. He wasn’t worried about the future, he just wanted to have a good time. While his friends got married, had kids, and had their own life, he watched the world pass him by. As the Earth kept spinning and everyone slowly started growing up, he never learned how to. He needed to hold onto these memories and moments with his friends so tightly that he couldn’t bear to get rid of his car, or the tape or any of the phrases that brought him back to 1990. So he did what a lot of us do, we focus on the past and lose ourselves in it. We remember and think about the time when we were on top of the world — or in my case, as close as I thought I could get.
While I was in high school, my father always told me and warned me how in his early twenties he felt he could take on the world, and felt let down when he realized he couldn’t. How the rug underneath you is pulled and you’ll fall down, time and time again. When it was my turn, I knew that it wasn’t possible — so I never had that feeling of beating the impossible or feeling invincible. Coming out of high school I was severely depressed, so I felt invisible, lost and living without purpose. I related to Gary King in the final moments of the film, when at his lowest, and at his drunkest (maybe not drunkest, but pretty far gone), he eventually did take on a higher being and won — he did win, whether it was a beneficial win is beside the point. While my new appreciation of the film and these moments spoke to me greatly even though I had many fights with my own demons afterwards, it strangely plays as an inspiration. If Gary, King of the Humans, could win, what could I do?
Some days I don’t know if I never was happy enough to feel on top of the world, or due to my anxiety, I never allowed myself to try to feel that way. I was too scared to fall, even if I knew I’d be okay, I wasn’t sure if I could manage that pain. It was after being at my lowest and watching him cry out and finally be honest, that I understood him. As much as I love the friendship in the previous films, the abusive relationship that Gary has with himself is one that I know far too well. For a moment, I felt as if I was watching what I could have become if I never got help or understood that I could fail once or twice, and get back up again.
Gary is given the opportunity to go back to those days, to be the kid he once was when he was truly the happiest. To forever live out the moment he’s been holding onto for 23 years, and for a moment, it seems like he might agree to it. But he allows himself to make mistakes because “this civilization is built on fuck-ups and you know what, that makes me proud.” In a quote that he’ll attempt to say later, “to err is human, to forgive is divine.” It’s not that Andy has to forgive Gary, but that Gary has to forgive himself. After allowing himself to be forgiven, it is only then that The Network leaves, finally allowing the world, and Gary King, to stop focusing and remembering June 20th, 1990. Once the world has ended, he returns to Newton Haven with Blanks as his new musketeers and drinks water, no longer needing alcohol and allowing himself to be sober for once. Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom to change, and sometimes the world as we know it needs to end first, but he’s happy because he’s allowed himself to accept himself after falling down. I love Wright’s filmography, but none of them speak to me the way that The World’s End has. Seeing Gary overcome his demons on-screen helped me realize that I could battle my own.
